The plan is to move to an ID card that would print only the last four digits of the SSAN, with the full SSAN electronically encrypted on the card. This would provide additional protection to the individual members while still preserving data deemed essential for hundreds of purposes, from validating commissary check purchases to confirming the identities of prisoners of war.
The reason for the multi-year phase-out is to allow time to convert the large numbers of hardware and software systems to conform to the new card, and also to allow a phased replacement of more than three million ID cards of current members, retirees, family members, and survivors so ID card facilities aren’t overwhelmed.

Received this from MOAA recently. Why it has taken so long for them to get on board with the idea that the use on the SSN (SSAN) on an ID card is not a good idea any more is beyond me.

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Me too. They took our social security number off of our Department of the Interior ID cards about seven years ago, if my recollection is correct. I remember back in 2000, they used "white-out" on my ID card to obscure the SSN until new cards could be made.

Received this from MOAA recently. Why it has taken so long for them to get on board with the idea that the use on the SSN (SSAN) on an ID card is not a good idea any more is beyond me.

My spouse's fitness reports still have her social security number and that of her reporting senior. I understand that BUPERS has changed some of those rules, but I doubt there's much incentive to stop the practice.

Just pumping out "common access card" chipped ID cards for the active-duty folks took about five years. I can't imagine how much longer it's going to take to corral all the retirees... oh, wait, I bet they do it when we have to renew our ID cards as part of signing up for Medicare.

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Spring 2020: my daughter and I wrote “Raising Your Money-Savvy Family For Next-Generation Financial Independence.”
Author of the book written on E-R.org: "The Military Guide to Financial Independence and Retirement."
I don't spend much time here— please send a PM.

Trivia question: who remembers their old service number before they switched to social security numbers? (I don't). I wonder why they don't revert to those? The service numbers could be matched with social security numbers when needed.

I actually do remember mine. I was enlisted for about 10 months before I was commissioned in 1967 so I have two of them. Good idea to go back to them and dump the SSN.
BTW, it is such a good idea that the pentagon would never consider it.

Glad I missed those days. I had enough trouble remembering my POW Q&A before we went out on missions...

By the time I was on my third-generation reactor plant I noticed that most of the operating parameters had changed by a factor of two or one-half. I used to get away with that rule of thumb about 90% of the time because I just couldn't remember all the nuclear Trivial Pursuit anymore.

But for some weird muscle-memory reason I can still operate all the buttons & knobs on the Type 18 periscope in total darkness. Now that U.S. subs are being built with non-penetrating periscopes, it's another totally useless skill that no doubt will impress the heck outta the great-grandkids...

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Spring 2020: my daughter and I wrote “Raising Your Money-Savvy Family For Next-Generation Financial Independence.”
Author of the book written on E-R.org: "The Military Guide to Financial Independence and Retirement."
I don't spend much time here— please send a PM.

Yeah, I remember them all: Enlisted RA #, Warrant Officer: USAR #, Regular Army Warrant Officer R# and then SSAN (as they used to say; I think it has morphed to SSN now). BTW I was in the Army AD when they converted from SN's to the SSAN on all personnel records and reports. It was a loooong drawn out conversion, lots of errors, lots of misrouted and lost stuff, took a good 5 years to get to about a 99% accuracy rate. Going back would be really hard as MOST now on AD NEVER had a Military Service Number to begin with.

I had enough trouble remembering my POW Q&A before we went out on missions...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nords

...it's another totally useless skill that no doubt will impress the heck outta the great-grandkids...

You're assuming they'll give a $hit about what ggpa did way back in the Cold War, are you? Based on my experience with what will be their parents' generation, you might get better response by telling those "there I was" tales to your bunny.

__________________*
Spring 2020: my daughter and I wrote “Raising Your Money-Savvy Family For Next-Generation Financial Independence.”
Author of the book written on E-R.org: "The Military Guide to Financial Independence and Retirement."
I don't spend much time here— please send a PM.

Just pumping out "common access card" chipped ID cards for the active-duty folks took about five years. I can't imagine how much longer it's going to take to corral all the retirees... oh, wait, I bet they do it when we have to renew our ID cards as part of signing up for Medicare.

In my opinion the CAC is the logically way to go. That is probably why the government will go a different route.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SoonToRetire

Trivia question: who remembers their old service number before they switched to social security numbers? (I don't). I wonder why they don't revert to those? The service numbers could be matched with social security numbers when needed.

I can recite it as fast as my SSN, which is fast. That number was acquired in 1966.

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Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered. That's my story and I am sticking to it.

I can recite it as fast as my SSN, which is fast. That number was acquired in 1966.

Hey, mine just suddenly returned to my mind, also from 1966. You're right, once in your mind it stays. I have the image of that number being imprinted on all of my underwear, something we had to do while in training to keep it from being lost by the laundry. Not that I would have minded.

We offer retired and dependant ID holders the option of not printing SSNs on their ID cards now.

That's good to know. It's not enough to make me want to endure the process at our local Personnel Support Detachment, but it's good to know.

__________________*
Spring 2020: my daughter and I wrote “Raising Your Money-Savvy Family For Next-Generation Financial Independence.”
Author of the book written on E-R.org: "The Military Guide to Financial Independence and Retirement."
I don't spend much time here— please send a PM.

Hey, mine just suddenly returned to my mind, also from 1966. You're right, once in your mind it stays. I have the image of that number being imprinted on all of my underwear, something we had to do while in training tokeep it from being lost by the laundry. Not that I would have minded.

You had laundry service while in boot camp? That is first class. We had to wash all our own clothes by hand on a wash rack. Went through a lot of dixie cup hats in the course of the day due to sweating.

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Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered. That's my story and I am sticking to it.

You had laundry service while in boot camp? That is first class. We had to wash all our own clothes by hand on a wash rack.

Aaaaaaaaannnnnnd... they're OFF! "You had [insert minimum essential basic standard of living here]?!!? Why, when I was at boot camp we didn't even have [insert horrible recruit-training deprivation here]!" We really need CFB to do this right.

Our kid still thinks that one of the "advantages" of USNA over NROTC is that she won't have to do her own laundry.

Boy does she have a lot to learn. Apparently she's decided not to learn it from her parents...

__________________*
Spring 2020: my daughter and I wrote “Raising Your Money-Savvy Family For Next-Generation Financial Independence.”
Author of the book written on E-R.org: "The Military Guide to Financial Independence and Retirement."
I don't spend much time here— please send a PM.

You had laundry service while in boot camp? That is first class. We had to wash all our own clothes by hand on a wash rack. Went through a lot of dixie cup hats in the course of the day due to sweating.

You had hands? They cut off our hands during boot camp and didn't sew them back on until we knew how to salute with our stumps. That's why we needed the laundry.

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